Knowing What You Shouldn't Know
by dftbalways
Summary: **This fic used to be titled 'Accidental Words'** My Jily creation story. It all started one potions class, when she came to know something she wasn't supposed to know.
1. Chapter 1

James took a deep breath, plucking up the courage he needed, before turning the corner, through the doorway, into his potions class.

He walked down between the rows of long tables, whereupon sat student's cauldrons, and various ingredients. He kept walking, until he reached the front of the classroom, and he took his seat. Looking down at the table as he gathered his strength, he turned to the girl beside him, and mustered up a greeting.

"Hey, Evans." He said, putting on his tough façade.

"Hello, Potter." She returned his greeting, obviously annoyed, as she always was, by his presence.

Their sixth year, James Potter and Lily Evans had been seated next to each other for potions, because Professor Slughorn thought Lily could be a good influence on his one of his more difficult students.

Sadly, that wasn't quite the effect. In fact, to Slughorn's ignorance, it had had the opposite effect. James had fancied Lily for as long as he could remember, but she had made it quite clear that the feeling was not mutual. However, this did nothing to hinder James' affection for her, and she tired of him asking her out.

Eventually, he tired of her rejections, and reduced his, what he's come to accept it as, love for her, hidden. Their exchanges are now limited to school, and simple greetings. He hated being so close to her, but never talking to her, and it hurt that she hated him. But no matter how much it hurt, these lessons were the only way he could talk to her now, and he relished this.

* * *

Lily tensed as she heard his footsteps approaching. Of course she could recognize the rhythm of his easy gait, the light _thuds_ of his shoes on the stone dungeon floor. He swept behind her quickly, and she felt her hair flutter against her back at the breeze of his passing. He took a seat next to her, leaving his messenger bag resting between the legs of their stools.

Making sure her excitement inside at their proximity was not noticeable on her steely expression, as she tried to hide how she felt about him. Since they were little, James had constantly pursued her, asking her on a date every other day. Sure he and his friends were having a laugh, she constantly refused, and at the beginning, she was relieved when he had stopped this year. As time wore on, and she realized how _much _she missed talking to him, and how much she wished that he had actually wanted to be with her all those times he asked. No matter how much she wanted to know if he meant any of it, she knew if she acted on her feelings, everyone would just think that she missed the attention.

"Hey, Evans." His voice brought her back from her rueful musings.

"Hello, Potter." She said, then promptly, so as not to divulge anything, turned her attention to the Professor Slughorn as he began the lesson.

* * *

The lesson that day was brewing an Elixir to Induce Euphoria. Working together with the odd idle word, James would add the ingredients, and Lily would stir them in the cauldron. After their potion turned a pleasing yellow-gold that earned a heartfelt compliment from Professor Slughorn, the pair turned to their individual work, writing about the correct and morale uses of the concoction.

As it only had to be a roll long, James figured he might as well try to finish the assignment in class, and began the paper. Once he was well into the essay, he felt something hit him in the back of the head. Inspecting the floor around him to find the mystery object, he found a balled up piece of parchment at the base of his stool. He turned to see his best friend Sirius, who at the back of the room was paired up with Frank Longbottom, and was gesturing James to open the parchment.

Smoothing out the paper, in Padfoot's haphazard scrawl, read a message for James.

'_Soooo hows Evans today? You look so broken-hearted Prongs.' _The note read, with a small happy face with the tongue sticking out drawn at the end.

Rolling his eyes at Sirius, shielding the note from Lily subtly with his arm, he wrote his reply.

'_Bugger off, Padfoot. You know she hates me. And I look no different then I usually do' _He waited a second for the ink to dry, and for Professor Slughorn to turn his back, before crumpling up the parchment and sending it back across the room, with impeccable aim.

He turned back to his work, and class ended a couple of minutes after. He left the room, joining Sirius at the door.

"Did you get my last note?" Sirius asked James, as they made their way up the stairs out of the dungeon.

"No. I didn't know you sent one back." James said, alarmed.

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure that no one'll read it, someone'll probably toss it." Sirius said, laughing at James' worry.

"You better be right Padfoot." He warned, and loosened up as they walked away. Sirius was right, it's probably already in the trash.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hello there, fair people who bless my hastily written words with their willing eyes. This is my first Jily fic, ever, and I kind of love them :D Also my first fic in which I do dual pov's, so this is new. I'm sure this chapter isn't as smooth as it could be, I wrote it in a couple of minutes xD LLAMAS AND SPARKLES FOR YOU ALL 3**

Lily bent down to get her bag on the other side of the stool, when she noticed a crumpled piece of parchment on the floor next to her things. She reached down to pick up the paper, and unfurled it thinking it fell from her bag, to reveal a conversation scribbled in ink. Reading what it said, she began to go red, and tossing everything in her pack, she made her way out of the classroom in haste.

Once she returned to the safety of the dorm rooms in the Gryffindor Tower, she pulled the red velvet curtains closed around her bed, and reached into her bag, finding the crumpled parchment. Carefully this time, she read over the conversation.

'_Soooo hows Evans today? You look so broken-hearted Prongs.'_

_'Bugger off, Padfoot. You know she hates me. And I look no different then I usually do.'_

_'Yeah, exactly my point. You guys should really talk. Everyone in the school thinks that you asked her out all those times for a laugh, so why shouldn't she? Sure, the first time seemed sincere, but 172 times? That's probably why she got annoyed.'_

Lily re-read the conversation over and over. Eyes wide and amazed, if this was all true, then James actually _liked _her. And it wasn't all for a joke. It was legitimate.

Her head spun in confusing spirals. Maybe Sirius was joking. He was Sirius Black, only behind James when it came to hijinks around the school. But he had seemed so... Serious. In his note to James. She couldn't even picture him saying something like that, without laughing it off or cracking some joke to balance what he had said.

Lily didn't know what to do. Leave it, she supposed, not say anything. She definitely wasn't going to tell any of her friends, they would blow it out of proportion and never leave it alone. And she surely wasn't going to say anything to James' friends. She felt like the right thing to do would be to talk to James himself.

How, and when were the next question. What do you say in a situation like this? "Hey, James, I accidentally read a private note between you and your best friend through which I discovered that you actually liked me those 172 times you asked me out on a date, and weren't trying to publicly humiliate me over and over again. Turns out, I kinda like you, and if you wouldn't mind ignoring all of the times I've been rude to you and rejected you, maybe we could pop over to Hogsmead one day."

Perfect plan. She flopped backwards on her bed, groaning not-so-internally, and covered her face with a pillow. She didn't move until she remembered that she had to eat, and made her way down to the Great Hall for dinner.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: More Jily! I love them so much :3 Warning, some almost-depressing James after a little while, but not too bad. I think. I'm not the best judge of these things :P Thanks for reading!**

* * *

She ate in a quiet haze, nodding at the right moments as her best friend Alice listed off the drama of the day. She ate quickly, and as soon as she finished, she excused herself disjointedly and made her way to bed. She changed into her nightclothes, before quickly returning to her previous position of angst and anxiety.

She tried to fall asleep, after the dorm had filled with the other sixth-years. Tossing and turning, hours into the night, she was still awake near three in the morning. It was then, in a sleep-deprived and hormonal driven haze that she decided it would be a good idea to send James Potter a note.

She wordlessly summoned a lead pencil and parchment. She removed Sirius and James' note from under her pillow - where she had kept it handy for quick review - and attached the pages together with a quick spell. Then, using her leg as a backing, she took the pencil, and messily scrawled a short line to James on the blank parchment.

'_I believe this is yours.' _she wrote, then stealthily crawled out of bed, to a window in the bathroom. There, she called softly toher owl, who she had trained to respond to a charm. Sure enough, after a moment, the handsome bird swooped to the window sill, and was off with the note for James Potter tied to it's leg. Lily sneaked back into her bed, and fell asleep after only a few moments, for some reason more at peace then before.

* * *

James lay in his bed, a couple of hours after dinner. He could hear the muffled conversations of the other boys that had been drifting through the closed curtains around him begin to taper off slowly, and the dorm settled into bed for the night. Not long after, everyone's breath grew deep, and snores began to echo softly off the walls. Yet James remained, staring lifelessly at the red satin above his head, contemplating the most certain doom that lay ahead of him if Lily had found his note.

He had tried, really tried, to get her to like him. Sure, maybe in their first couple of years, he did it more to tease her rather than because he actually liked her, but over time, her rejections started to really hurt, stabbing him in the small cracks of the armor he'd worked so hard to build up. By the end of their fifth year, he was tired of it, and realized how much he actually _loved _her. After some heavy thinking over the summer, he came to the conclusion that talking to her only hurt him more - she hated him. It was his biggest regret, having her actually and fully detest him. Not that he blamed her. When he looked back and thought of how he had treated her, and others, he realized that he was a bully, and he begun to hate himself as much as she did. Moony had said that he can't measure his worth by Lily's opinion, but that didn't stop James.

So, this year, he stopped hexing defenseless first years, stopped snarkily insulting whoever crossed his path, and he walked away from conflict. He and the Marauders kept setting the odd prank, but mostly to each other. Most drastically of all, however, James stopped talking to Lily. He got the message, she didn't want to talk to him ever again. He was finally respecting her space.

His friends were worried, not understanding the sad, solemn James that he had become this year. In retribution for his past actions, he felt like it was just best for him to be a ghost of himself, slip away, let everyone forget the monster he eventually saw himself as.

It was thoughts as these that kept James Potter's head stirring at the ever late hour. Or early, now. It must have been extremely well into the morning, when he heard a light scratching at the window next to his bed. Curious, he slid out of the cot deftly, and opened the glass silently. An owl hovered outside, and stuck it's leg in James' direction, inviting him to untie a small scroll from it's foot that he saw was addressed to him. As soon as the note had been removed, the tawny flew into the night, back to the Owlery atop a nearby tower of Hogwarts.

James crawled back through the veil of satin and, sitting up and whispering _**Lumos**_**, **illuminating the tip of his wand. He unrolled the parchment, to find two pieces, one of which had very familiar writing on it.

The note from Potions.

He stared at it disbelieving, before remembering the second piece of the paper, where in pencil, a short note was written.

'_I believe this is yours' _it read, in a swirling font. A girls scripture. A familiar writing, one that he had seen during lessons.

The writing of one Lily Evans.

He set down the note, picked up the pillow, and burying his face deep in the flannel-wrapped cotton, he let out a loud "_DAMMNIT!"_.

Luckily, the pillow worked surprisingly well in disguising his outburst, and he slapped a hand over his eyes shamefully. _Lily _had read the note. _Lily _knows he's hopelessly in love with her, and thinks she hates him. _Knows _she hates him. And, she returned the note. Why would she do that? What kind of message was she sending? "Hell yeah I hate you you insensitive pig!" or "I don't actually hate you at all and wanted to try to let you know."? He knew it was the first option, she would've said something else in the note surely. But why was she up so late? And why send it _now_?

These questions ensured that James would get not a wink of sleep that night, and he arose from his bed even more confused than when he had retrieved the note.

Sirius yawned and stretched the next morning, looking at James curiously.

"Damn, you look _awful _Prongs. Did you sleep at all last night?" He asked, laughing at the bags under James' eyes and the especially messy-ness of his usual unruly hair.

"Not in the slightest. Thanks, man." James said grumpily, rubbing the sleep from his eye.

"It's what I'm here for, mate. Who else will deliver you with the finest, cold, hard truth?" Sirius laughed, patting his best friend on the back.

'_Lily, I wish.' _ James thought moodily in his head, completely confuddled with the happenings of the night before. But he wasn't the only one.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hellooo there! You guys, you're brilliant :') Thank you all, for the views and review (xD)! I wanted to quickly mention that this chapter has the same conversation from two p.o.v., and I know it can be weary re-reading dialogue. I promise to try and avoid this, I just figured this convo was short enough to let it slide :P Happy Jily-ing! **

Lily Evans awoke the next morning with the strongest sense of '_ohmygodwhathaveIdone?!'. _Seconds after opening her eyes, she bolted upright, remembering slowly her actions before she fell asleep the night before. Terrified and confused, she tried to think of a liable reason she could have possibly done what she had done, sending James the note, basically confirming that she knows everything he couldn't possibly want her to know.

What she learned from this : **never**, under any circumstances, allow your over-tired, stressed, emotionally confused self perform _any _possibly life-altering and/or life _destroying _actions past the reasonable hour of twelve a.m.

What she was going to do about the situation at hand : She had _no _idea whatsoever.

She decided she should try and act like she had _not _just jeopardized herself, and any of the possibilities of maintaining a healthily distant and non-existent relationship with James Potter. From that note, she had learnt that James a) genuinely cared about her and b) thought she hated him. The first made her heart race with an unwanted excitement, as her mind sang at the thought of him caring about her for real, and the second made her upset. Hate was a strong word, and she _hated _that James thought she hated him. Sure, she tired of his act, his hurtful pranks, and his bullyish attitude, but she had never, _ever _despised him.

She got up, got dressed into her uniform, and readied herself for a day of school. She made her way down to breakfast before any of her friends, wanting the meal to be over with as quickly as possible, and desperately wanting to avoid interacting with anyone socially at the moment.

Alone at the table, as the first students dribbled into the Hall, Lily quickly ate a muffin, void of an appetite. She had just finished the muffin's top and was making her way into the base, when she noticed James coming into the Great Hall, alone. The table was only about a quarter full so far, and so she would be able to see him where ever he sat, and vice-versa. She ducked he head low, nose-to-muffin as he passed her. She hoped that he would keep walking, walking until he reached the other end of the long Gryffindor table, but he didn't. She cautiously raised her head to see James' waist directly in front of her, and her eyes continued to travel slowly up his body, until reluctantly reaching his own hazel eyes.

He smiled an awkward grin, timid, but heartfelt. He nervously ran a hand through his hair, before finally saying something.

"Do you mind if I sit?" He asked, indicating to the bench across from Lily.

She shook her head violently, her mouth refusing to speak. She was nervous, having a civil and out-of-class conversation with him, and knowing they'd be discussing the stupid thing she had done last night - or this morning.

"I was wondering, if maybe you'd like to eat lunch with me. I think we need to talk - as friends." He added hurriedly, worried, probably, that if she thought he were asking her out on a date, she would just get angry at him.

"Yea-yeah. Yes. Okay." She sputtered, anxiously sweeping her long, red locks behind her ear.

"Great. Cool. Okay." He said, standing. As he did so, he knocked over a stack of toast that had been balancing precariously on the loaded table. Red creeped up his neck as he laughed tensely, attempting to re-stack the now soiled toast. After a feeble attempt of fixing the mess, he ran his hand through his hair again, and nodded towards the exit of the Hall. "Meet you at the front entrance at lunch?" He suggested.

"Okay." She agreed, keeping a mellow exterior in contrast to her now raging interior.

"Okay." He said one last time, before making his way further down the table to wait for his friends.

* * *

James hurriedly got ready that morning, not even bothering to attempt dealing with his hopeless hair - that he had given up long ago. He threw on his clothes, and before any of his friends could ask, he was gone, leaving them behind, still in their sleepwear. He dashed down the stairs as quickly as he dared, dodging the odd early bird, and eventually slowed down outside the entrance to the Great Hall. His plan was to wait until Lily passed him, so he could ask her to talk, but through the entrance, he spotted a head of familiar deep red hair. She was here before him.

Taking a deep breath like he had before entering that fateful Potions class the day before, he checked his reflection in the ornamental bronze that crowned the doorway. Desperately he tried to flatten his hair, and he straightened his glasses, which were terribly askew from his hurry downstairs. One last moment, and then he enters the Hall, trying to act cool. He walks casually up to where Lily sat, bent over a half-eaten muffin, and waited until she lifted her head.

Her eyes looked tired, but not quite as weary as his. Her hair curtained her face with elegant twirls, and her cheeks were tinged pink. She straightened her posture, trying to look composed. James felt embarrassed knowing that she knows she knows something she shouldn't. He could feel his neck heating up, reaching his cheeks, from the embarrassment of the note, and the fact he was going to actually talk to her, for real. He tried smiling at her, attempting to hide his fear.

"Do you mind if I sit?" He asked, waving act the bench a little maniacally. She nods, biting her lip obviously. He takes a seat, and he can feel the tension and the awkwardness of the situation in the air.

"I was wondering, if maybe you'd like to eat lunch with me. I think we need to talk." He began, rushing his words as he got them out. Quickly, realizing what that sounded like, and not wanting to annoy her further, he assures her "As friends."

"Yea-yeah. Yes. Okay." She said, and his heart sang. She had said _yes_! To talking to _him_. As _friends._

"Great. Cool. Okay." He said, the nervousness and anxiety taking over his head. He moved to stand, when, being the absolute fool that he was, toppled over a highly stacked spire of toast, spilling the triangles of bread across the table and floor. Now he went completely red, and tried to clean up his mess. After he gave up, he made to move away from the humiliating situation, before remembering to add; "Meet you at the front entrance at lunch?"

"Okay." She said, nodding more.

"Okay." He agreed, and left, moving down the table to where he and the Marauders usually sat. Once he was out of her sight, he smacked his head on the table, cursing his stupidity.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** Okay you guys are really sweet. Thank you much for the support, i don't know if I would've continued with it :) Enjoy!

* * *

Lily thought that her morning lessons had never dragged on quite like they had that day. History of Magic seemed to last hours on its own, and of course today was a quiet study period in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, the bell for lunch rang, and she had never left class as early as she had. She didn't wait to walk with James, even though he was in her Charms, but instead dashed to the girls lavatory.

Once there, she examined herself carefully in the mirror. She arranged and rearranged the almost indiscernible curls her hair fell into, making almost straight but not quite. She re-tied the knot on her tie, making it perfect, and fixed her skirt to rest on her waist line straight. After she deemed herself acceptable, she took a few deep breaths in front of the mirror, calming herself down.

She didn't know why she was _so _excited that she would be spending lunch alone with James. Maybe this was proof, confirming that she really did like him. Not that this was a date, he made _that _very clear. But it was a lunch, with him, alone. Talking about the extremely embarrassing events of the day before. Lily tried to forget that part.

One last quick overview, then she made her way out of the bathroom quickly, heading for the entrance to the Great Hall. There, she found James leaning nonchalantly against a post. He was taller than most of the students around, and was scanning the crowd for Lily. His eyes fell to hers, and his smile lit up his entire face, which she could not help but return herself. She crossed over to him, where he stood at attention when she approached. Standing directly in front of him, she realized just _how _much taller he was than her, as she tilted back her head to look up into his face.

"Do you want to get some food?" She suggested nervously.

"Actually, I already have." He said, picking up a picnic basket that she hadn't noticed on the floor next to his feet.

"A picnic?" She asked.

"Yeah, I thought we could take advantage of the last of this good weather. Fall won't be nice for much longer." He said, looking at the floor.

"That'd be wonderful." She smiled up at him, all the anxiety she had been feeling melting away with the smile he returned.

"But totally not a date." He assured her, for her sake.

The fact that it wasn't a date almost made Lily sad.

"Absolutely... Potter." She added for full effect. Together, they exited the castle, winning a few odd looks from attentive students passing them as they walked.

They left through the front doors, and walked along the main path until they reached a small trail that led away to the Great Lake, and they reached the dry bank. James laid out a blanket he had removed from his basket, and they sat with the basket between them.

"I asked the house elves if they wouldn't mind keeping aside a bit of extra food, and they gave me this, filled to the brim." James said laughing, opening the wicker basket.

Lily giggled at the sight of the almost overflowing basket, packed to the brim with sandwiches, crisps, and thermoses filled with pumpkin juice, tea, and water. James pulled out the food, stacking it between them where he had just moved the basket from. They dug in, removing the cellophane from the various sandwiches, and jokingly played a game where they had to guess the ingredients of the sandwich. After a couple of minutes, of surprisingly easy conversation, and eventually getting over their nerves around one another, James decided it was an okay time to bring up the note from the night before.

"So, the note, you found... In Potions..." He began awkwardly.

"That." She said, nodding, looking at the checkered blanket beneath them.

"Yeah. I wanted to... explain myself." He said, looking down as well, but trying to gauge her reaction out of the corner of his eye.

"Okay." She said, looking up at his face again.

"I never wanted you to hate me." He began.

"I never did hate you." She said.

He stopped, looking at her, in shock, in the eyes. He had seriously believed she had, he would've bet every last galleon in the bank on it.

"_Never_?" He questioned eventually.

"_Never_. Sure, I got angry, annoyed, but I never _hated _you." She reassured him.

"Oh. Okay. Good." He stuttered, thrown off by how wrong he was. He shook his head, then continued where he left off. "I realized, this past summer, what a, a _bully_ I had been. I hated myself for that, and I didn't want to be like that anymore." He looked across the lake, the water shimmering in the early-autumn sun.

"James..." She said, and without thinking, grabbed his hand with hers. At her touch, he looked up at her, into her eyes, and smiled, a small, cautious smile. She returned that smile warmly, and didn't let go of his hand.

"James..." She said again. "Would you like to go out with me?"

His smile transformed from cautious to surprised, and then happy.

"I would love to, Lily Evans." He agreed.

"Let's get to class, then." She stood up, pulling him by hand, and began cleaning up their picnic.

The day seemed to zoom forward at this point, slowing only to a comfortable speed when it came time for the last period of the day, Potions. Today, James paused outside the door in his usual habit, but only to enter confidently, and happily. He was greeted by Lily when she entered not long after, and together, they got top marks on a partnered assignment. Slughorn seemed extremely proud of himself, thinking that his plan for Lily's study habits to rub off on James seemed to be taking full effect. His thoughts were partially true, but not for any reasons he would suspect.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: **Hello there. You guys are the bestest :) This story is getting some attention, which is more than I ever expected! But,_ I don't know if I'm going to continue it_. I feel, in my booonnnnesss, that this story is going downhill. But, do not fear! For I have started a new Jily fic, which I like a lot more! One that actually coincides with the actual book's timeline! So I'll post the rest of what I've written of this, but I doubt I'll add any more after that. :) I wish you hugs from your preferred british actor. :D

* * *

After an enjoyable class, Sirius caught up to James in the hallway.

"Oi! Prongs!" He shouted, jogging up to his best friend, who had forgotten to wait for him before leaving the class.

"Sorry, sorry Padfoot." James said, shaking his head.

"It's alright, Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky." Sirius laughed.

"What do you mean?" James asked.

"I reckon your lunch with Miss _Evans _went well." He nudged James in the ribs.

"Yeah, it went well." James smiled, remembering her grip on his hand.

"So... Is she the new Mrs Potter?" Sirius joked.

"No! Stop it!" James dodged another nudge from Sirius' elbow.

"What, you mean you didn't propose the second you opened your mouth?"

"No. We're going on _one _date. And she asked me." James said, a little annoyed at his friend's teasing, but he's learnt to let that slide.

"A _date!_" Sirius exclaimed, earning a punch in the arm from James as all eyes in the hall turned to them.

"_Shut. Up._" He nearly growled in Sirius' ear. For once, Sirius took him seriously.

As they climbed the many stairs to their common room, Sirius talked about his day, every so often asking James for details on his little luncheon, but every time, James refused, saying he wasn't in the mood to repeat the story a dozen times, and was going to wait until Moony and Wormtail were there too.

They settled into their usual corner of the common area, and within minutes were joined by their other two friends.

"Okay, Prongs, you have _no other _possible excuses now. Tell us." Sirius said.

"Okay, okay, fine!" He conceited.

"Uh, tell us what exactly?" Remus asked, confused. Peter nodded vigorously at James' side.

"Calm down, Wormtail, before you get whiplash." Sirius said. "And Prongs is to divulge the happenings of his lunch with Mademoiselle Evans." He waved his hand in an exaggerated motion.

"Okay. So-" James began, "- we ate lunch by the lake, we talked, we _don't _hate each other, and we're going on a date."

"That's it?" Sirius complained.

"A date? That's great!" Peter enthused.

"Congratulations Prongs." Remus smiled at his friend.

"That was boring. We want _details_." Sirius insisted.

"There's nothing more to _say_." James insisted. "Well, I mean, she asked me, but that doesn't matter."

"What are you guys going to do?" Remus asked.

"I don't know."

"When is it?" He continued.

"I don't know."

"I guess you'll find that out soon." Remus said.

"Have you picked a wedding date? I would suggest a summer event, classy and romantic." Sirius thumped his best friend on the back.

"Of course, you would know all about that, planning for you and _Aleyn Boreas_." James retorted, teasing Sirius about a girl he'd been talking about the past two months of school.

Near suppertime, they and the other students made their ways down to the Great Marauders sat at their usual spot on the long table, enjoying the meal. Once or twice, however, James would look down the long table, and send a small smile in Lily's direction, which she would return. It was only these silent and quick exchanges that kept James believing the past lunch had been real.

Lily retired to the dorm not too long after dinner. She had finished her homework, and Alice had been pestering her since after class to divulge the details of her and James' lunch, which she didn't want to do in the middle of the common room. They went up to their room, and she told her story. She told her best friend how he explained himself, and the pleasant, and amusing conversations they actually can enjoy together. When Lily just about reached the part where she asked James out, on a date, Alice squealed.

"He asked you out, didn't he!" She guessed excitedly.

"Well, actually, I kind of asked _him_." She confessed.

"That's even _cuter_. You two used to bicker all the time." She said.

"I know. We didn't today. I don't know if I was to nervous, or what, but we just _talked._" Lily wondered.

Alice made another high-pitched noise, and Lily cringed. As much as she loved Alice, sometimes she acted a little too dramatically when it came to things like this.

Alice went on about the endless possibilities of their future date, but after a while, and as the others in her year came up to bed, the girls separated, Lily settled into her bed, and read her favourite novel. Before long, however, it was shut on her nightstand, and her head was dreaming of James Potter.

The rest of the week flew by, during one of their potions lessons, they agreed on going to Hogsmead together on that weekend's excursion. The days leading up to that Saturday, however, they talked more, and the nervous shells began to fall away. Lily began to see more of the James Potter that had been, except he no longer hung undeserving students upside down for the fun of it. His easy humour began to show, and she saw the calm, cool Potter.

She was often distracted by him. Sitting in Charms, directly behind him, she would catch herself staring endlessly at his perfect features. Her eyes tracing his distinct jawline, loving the way the corners of his eyes crinkled when he laughed with a big grin. He glasses were almost always askew, and his hair as messy as ever - the way she liked it. He usually wore his tie loose, and the top button of his white button-up shirt undone by one or two buttons at the top. When writing, or working with spells, he would roll up his sleeves, with surprisingly defined muscles, being Chaser on a quidditch team, and being the team Captain had it's perks for his body's appearance.

Saturday soon came, and the morning consisted of Lily frantically trying her best to look as good as she could. She left the Gryffindor Tower with the rest of the students going on an excursion, and ran into James on the steps. They walked together with their peers until they reached the entrance to Hogsmead, when everyone split off in their own directions.

Lily and James decided to find a spot in the Three Broomsticks. Worried about availability of space, they tried to get there quickly. When they arrived, the only table seated two, and was almost hidden because of a large supporting post that was doing it's job of keeping the roof a roof. They sat, and ordered a butterbeer each.

"This is nice, Potter." She said, sipping the frothy beverage.

"I would agree, _Evans_." Playfully emphasizing the use of her last name.

"Where are all your friends?" She asked.

"Guess."

"Zonko's?" She grinned.

"Ding ding ding, we have a winner. Miss Evans, would you like to select your prize? Anything from the top shelf." He joked.

"Anything? Well... I'll take the elephant." She played along.

"One stuffed elephant coming up!" He waved his wand, muttering an incantation, and a small stuffed elephant toy appeared on the table in front of her."

"James!" She laughed, inspecting the toy. He picked it up and moved it across the table so it looked as though it were marching towards Lily. When it finally reached her, he lifted the trunk, making a loud elephant noise. People in the pub looked around confused, and Lily shook her head in disbelief.

"I can't believe you just did that! You're ridiculous!" She whispered to him, her smile giving it away that she wasn't actually annoyed.

"Live a little on the wild side, love." He whispered back. A tingle went through her spine at his laid-back use of the term 'love', but knew better than to think a big deal of it. They continued sipping at their butterbeer, and ordered a platter of chips. Between them, they shared the potato wedges, as their new elephant friend watched on.

"Want to try something delicious?" James asked her, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Okay..." Lily asked, only partly worried.

Taking that for a definite yes, James took a chip, and dipped it in his butterbeer. then held it hovering it in front of her face.

"Open up." He told her, and she did, closing her eyes in fear of the possibly terrible taste. He popped the chip in her mouth, and she chewed hesitantly.

"That is... _Disgustingly _tasty." She announced, earning a triumphant grin from James.

"I told you so." He teased.

"Yeah, yeah" She waved her hand, she didn't like letting him win.

Their afternoon together continued as it was, the odd argument about unimportant things that was fought in good spirits. They walked through the small village, popping into shops as they went. Some times, they fell into a silence, but it wasn't awkward - almost like they were each trying to figure out how they ended up there, together, on a date.

Eventually, the afternoon ended, and all of the students returned to Hogwarts. They said goodbye at dinner, going their separate ways.

The week passed, normal, but not. Rumors were spreading, Lily Evans and James Potter together, something unheard of, completely unexpected. The two didn't disclose anything to anyone who wasn't an immediate friend, though, and they ignored the gossip. They ate a few meals together, and had their daily Potions class. Once, James had turned around while Lily had been staring, trying to calculate the exact angle of his perfect jawline, and caught her. Not that he cared, all he did was flash a crooked smirk, and wink at her, which made her hit him in the shoulder, and forcibly whisper "_**Potter!**_" loudly. Alice shook her head at her friend, and went back to taking notes on the Professor's lecture.


	7. Chapter 7

On Thursday, near the end of Potions, James asked Lily about when she would want to go out again.

"I don't know, whenever works for you." She said, meaning his quidditch schedule for practices.

"I have an idea." He said, as the class finished, and he swept out of the room before she could question what he meant.

The next night, Lily lay in her bed, the curtains pulled to. She still hadn't learnt anything of what James had meant when he said 'I have an idea', and they hadn't decided what their plans were yet. She was just drifting off to sleep, when she noticed the curtains were shaking, like something was repeatedly ramming into them. She opened them a crack, and in flew a crumpled piece of parchment, which was now zooming in circles in front of her. She reached out with a hand, and snatched the ball of paper, unfolding it.

'_Meet me in the common room.'_ It read. '-_James_.'

She slowly opened her curtains and crawled out of bed, slipping a pair of slippers onto her foot. She padded her way out of the dorm and down the stairs, where she found James Potter standing by the fireplace holding a broomstick. He was wearing loose pajama pants, and a rather tight t-shirt, which Lily realized showed defined chest and abdominal muscles. She _loved _quidditch.

"_**James." **_She whispered when she got close to him.

"_**Lily**_." He whispered back in a teasing tone, mocking the way she had said his name.

"_**What are you doing down here? What am **_**I **_**doing down here?**_" She demanded, not wanting to get in trouble.

"**We **_**are having our second date, is what we are doing**_." He explained.

"_**We're not leaving this dorm!**_" She insisted.

A few minutes later, she and James were flying away from the tower, holding on for dear life, and wondering how he ever managed to convinced her. She kept her eyes squeezed shut as tightly as she could - she was petrified of flying. Noticing how tightly her arms were wrapped around his waist, he tried he best to fly as steady as he could, but he need to swoop upwards to reach where they were going - the astronomy tower. They landed, and it took a bit of convincing to get Lily to let go of him and open her eyes. She did so, to find the blanket from their picnic in the centre of the wide, flat top of the tower, but this time with pillows, and surrounded by candles flickering in the moonlight. James cast a heating charm around their blanket, shielding them from the crisp autumn air. He gestured that she should sit, and he sat next to her.

"I figured we could do some stargazing." He explained, looking up at the stars, which were bright and numerous. There was no light pollution for miles around Hogwarts, so the stars were nearly always visible if the sky was clear.

"This, this is brilliant." Lily said, all the tiredness in her washed away by the excitement of the date, and proximity to James.

James seemed happy with her response, and he looked long in her eyes, getting lost in the what seemed an infinity of green. He raised his hand to cup her cheek, Lily's skin tingling at his touch, and slowly, hesitantly, checking to see if she would pull away, he began to move his head closer to hers. Deciding he was moving _too _slow, Lily buried her hands in James' mess of hair, and closed the gap quickly. The kiss made her heart race, and everything in her life felt as though it had been leading up to the very moment. Their lips moved together, and everything seemed right. Eventually, they moved to lay down, face to face, where they eventually drifted off to sleep. Lily was the first, and James watched as her eyelids fluttered, and she eventually gave in,her breath deepening and slowing, until he fell asleep as well. During the night, she instinctively and unknowingly rolled into his embrace, to which, in his sleep, he automatically responded with an arm around her waist, pulling her close in his arms.

Lily awoke the next morning - very, very early morning - to find herself curled in a ball, sheltered by James' body. She didn't dare move, until he was awoken by the singing birds at dawn. He smiled at her, kissed her on the mouth gently, and suggested it would be best for them to return to their beds before any one woke up to find them missing. She agreed, and he joked about how nice they had found the stars the night before.

* * *

**A/N: So that's it! that is all I have of this fic, and I think that's all I'll ever have. If you like Jily, or my writing ( I can't imagine that's possible) than you might enjoy my other Jily fic that's 1238957t49851649x better and more realistic (to the books) than this one :D I also have started a pride and prejudice themed Jily fic for any Austen fans, and plan to post that sooon-ish!**


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